Photoelectron circular dichroism of the randomly oriented chiral molecules glyceraldehyde and lactic acid

The differing interaction of left and right circularly polarized light with chiral molecules is shown to lead to different angular distributions of the photoelectrons created by photoionization of a given enantiomer, even when the target molecules are randomly oriented. Numerical calculations are presented to demonstrate the magnitude of this effect for the C3H6O3 structural isomers lactic acid and glyceraldehyde, including two different conformations of the latter. Circular dichroism in the angular distributions (CDAD) of the valence electrons of these biomolecules is most pronounced close to threshold, but tends to vanish as the electron kinetic energy approaches 20 eV and above. CDAD signals are predicted to range, typically, from 10% to 40% and sometimes to more than 60% of the differential cross section. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 9606(00)51201-X].